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IN82 SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility

Posted on October 4, 2007 by Art Feierman
What we have here is a classic single chip DLP projector. It utilizes a 7 segment color wheel, and although I couldn't locate the spec on the InFocus website, it looks to be a typical 5X speed wheel. I base this on my slight sensitivity to the Rainbow Effect (RBE). The one, competing, single chip DLP projector that has a faster wheel, is the Optoma HD81-LV at 6X, and I definitely noticed the difference, as I only rarely could spot RBE with the HD81-LV compared to this or other DLP projectors. Still, I am one of the very small percentage of the population (almost certainly less than 5%) that can detect RBE at all, on today's newer home theater projectors. Life is simple: If you are significantly affected by the Rainbow Effect, you don't buy a DLP projector.

When it comes to Screen Door Effect - and Pixel Visibility, the IN82 is again typical of 1080p DLP projectors. And that means, don't worry about it. You cannot make out the pixel structure, let alone a screen door effect at any reasonable seating distance. End of conversation.

IN82 Projector Brightness

Wow! Boy was I surprised. InFocus really hasn't been making a big fuss about the brightness of the IN82, and they really should be.

This projector cranks out some serious lumens. Let me get the key numbers out there before commenting.

In "best" mode, with color temp set to 6500K, after some minor grayscale, brightness and contrast adjustments, and set for cinema, gamma set to film, lamp on high, the IN82 pumped out 1228 lumens.

Drop the lamp into low power mode, and that changes to 918 lumens. That works out to a drop of almost exactly 25%, which should be pretty consistant in any mode.

Now, if you need all the lumens available, with the lamp back on full power, select the Hi-Brightness gamma mode, and with color temp still at 6500K for movies, the IN82 cranks out 1530 lumens.

Move the Color Temp setting to 7500, more suitable for TV/HDTV, and the lumens drop a bit to 1416.

For the brightest output of all, reset the color temp to Native, and lumens increase to 1714.

The point is, the InFocus is very bright, with roughly 1200 lumens output in best movie watching mode, and still a good movie watching temperature, you can get out just over 1500 lumens. Damn!

To put this in perspective, my own JVC RS1, which is one of the brightest in best cinema mode, comes in just shy of 800 lumens, and only 900 lumens in its brightest mode.

Only the Optoma HD81-LV can beat the InFocus IN82, and not by much. In its best mode with zoom wide open, the HD81-LV measured 1474 lumens, but as I noted, drop that by about 10% if the zoom lens is in the middle of its range, as the IN82 was. So that 1474 will equate to about 1330 lumens, vs 1228, a differnce of less than 10%. Don't get me wrong, the Optoma has more horsepower when image quality is second to brightness, measuring about 2900 lumens maximum (adjusted that's about 2600), compared to the IN82's 1714. One further note. I was using Brilliant Color when trying to get the most of the Optoma, I never got around to turning it on with the InFocus. It did make a significant difference with the Optoma, however.

So that's the story, for best movie watching it is incredibly close to the HD81-LV (which claims 2500 lumens), despite its 1500 lumen rating. But then InFocus, as usual points out that they rate for D65 cinema (6500K, which is normally dimmer than higher temperatures). That means the IN82 can support some pretty impressive sized screens, but we'll get to that shortly.

Review continues below the advertisement.

IN82 Projector - Light Leakage

Click to enlarge. SO close

Oops, a minor problem here, as you can see from the picture. The image on the screen (the beginning of Planet Earth - that's the planet on the left of the image, and the sun rising on the horizon, to the right of the sun, is black space and stars) is very dark as you can see, but I have badly overexposed the image. You can see, mostly on the right side, some curved extraneous light leaking from the lens. The good news, is that you are not likely to ever notice it while watching normal content, but, should you get a complete fade to black, and your walls beyond the screen are off white, you might see it, but it won't be bright. If your walls are dark, there's not chance of spotting it at all. I reduced the size of the image on the screen, so that the picture, and the leaking light are hitting the 1.4 gain Carada screen, to make it most visible.

Click Image to Enlarge

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